Judd spoke at a Christmas party at Mayor Karl Dean’s house for the state Democrats’ finance council, TNDP spokesman Brandon Puttbrese said. (This is how the mayor gets to spend his Tuesday nights while the Metro Council is talking about its own lifetime health insurance plan and zoning bills.) The actress/activist was coy about her plans but “fired up” the crowd of 100 or so guests representing Tennessee’s very-much-in-the-minority party.

“She talked about speaking with a strong, unified voice of common sense to counter the absurdity of what was coming out before this Connecticut incident and then after,” Puttbrese said, referring to last week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. “We’ve already got people saying they want to arm every teacher in the state and just really far-out ideas like that. She just talked about the importance of common sense.”

Judd, a Williamson County resident who was a Tennessee delegate to the Democratic National Convention in September, has been the subject of much speculation lately about whether she’ll challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky when he runs for re-election in 2014. While even Dean’s dog, Dizzy, appears to be impatient for Judd to make a decision (see above), “she didn’t announce a Senate run in any state,” said Dave Garrison, the Tennessee Democratic Party’s treasurer and a candidate for party chairman in January.